Firstly, I am not exactly sure if it is the right subforum, but I couldn’t find anything better (for feature requests)
I’d like to start with saying that there are currently three ways of installing and updating plasmoids - for the scripts available on kde-look.org, it’s khotnewstuff, and for binaries, one can either compile them (harder, needs manually checking the updates) or downloading from YaST2 (easier, automated updated, but some plasmoids are REALLY outdated (e.g. Daisy))
My idea is to make this process doable in only one application, and avoid the situation where the user if forced to either choose between up-to-date plasmoids or compilation process (hard for newbies)
Idea 1:
I once browsed KDE4 configuration files, and AFAIR, I stumbled upon a configuration file where the URL was stored to kde-look plasmoid scripts database. This made me think that maybe opensuse devs could someday think of their own repository with plasmoid binaries (because the kde-look one contains only scripts, obviously) - that way it would be more user friendly tot he user, because he/she wouldn’t have to use YaST to install plasmoids rpms. Of course, the plasmoids available in the future opensuse repository would be rpms as well
So generally it would be just the same as now, with the difference that plasmoids won’t be installed through YaST, but through khotnewstuff.
It has some big disadvantages, though. I was really disappointed with the way the plasmoids are handled in the KDE Community repo. Most of the ones I searched for were outdated (I understand 1 or 2 day lag between code release and rpm release, but search for the already mentioned Daisy! Repo version is 4.3, and 4.12 is already available!). That’s what made me learn how to compile, and at the beginning, it was really hard to understand how it all works. It is still annoying I need to check for updates manually.
So either the KDE Community maintainers decide to pay more attention to the plasmoids, or the users will still be left with the outdated/compilation choice I wrote about above.
Idea 2:
It would surely require more work, but in my opinion, it is a much wiser choice. The whole process will be automated, and there will be no other people between the plasmoid devs and end users, which would result in always up-to-date plasmoids.
My idea is generally similar to Idea 1 when it comes to khotnewstuff, but the origin of the binary plasmoids will be different. All the plasmoids I know so far can be compiled&installed with this script:
#!/bin/bash
if ! -d build ]; then
mkdir build
fi
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix` ..
make clean
make
if ! `whoami` = "root" ]; then
echo
echo "The installation requires root privileges. "
echo "Authentication required - CTRL+C to cancel:"
sudo make install
else
make install
fi
if ! `whoami` = "root" ]; then
kbuildsycoca4
fi
Credit goes to Daisy plasmoid developer, Lechio.
So khotnewstuff would just download the source code off kde-look, store it in some hidden folder, then execute the script. Uninstalling is even easier:
sudo make uninstall && make clean
The other advantage is that it would make the process distro-independent.
There is only one downside, but it’s a big one, though. I mean the compile dependencies. (kernel headers, libkde4-devel and kde4-workspace-devel, AFAIR, and other distro maintainers would need to supply with the info about how the packages are called in their packaging system)
Some plasmoids have also prerequisites, and it would be necessary for khotnewstuff to check the distro and download the appropriate rpms with prerequisites.
What do you think?